Got The Knack for Non-Fiction Writing? Here’s How to Build a Writing Career With Your Writing Skills

Never has writing or the ability to create compelling content been more emphasised than now. The new media has expanded the possibilities for creating a career as a writer and while the difficulties to building a career in writing is still not easy the tools and channels are now for accessible.

If you are like me maybe you do not fancy a 9-5 work schedule and having to do a strict work procedure everyday. Maybe you have innate writing abilities and would love to explore possible career opportunities there are for writers in Nigeria?

First understand this: Making a financially rewarding career out of writing in Nigeria is more difficult than in many other places. Writers don’t make money easily here so the earlier you know it’s not for the faint-hearted the better. If you are really determined to make it as a writer in non-fiction then here are some tips that might just help.

Determine Your Space

As a non-fiction writer there are not much opportunities for freelance work and while there are many industries or niches you can choose from you have to choose from niches where you can build a voice and tap into an already reachable audience. Some growing writing niches include health for women and children, fitness, career development/personal improvement, real estate, personal finance, education etc. Note that these niches can be broad and also have workable sub-niches.

In choosing your niche factors like availability of information, level of information overload, available writing job opportunities should affect your final choice.

Create A Writing Image and Profile

If you are serious about being a writer in today’s world the least you should do is have a decent online presence and well crafted image on more important social platforms. A blog will also help cement your writing presence online.

Choose Your Communities

As a writer the communities you belong to and share your work on will help or affect the virality and distribution of your work and writing brand. Contribute to credible platforms and engage in conversations around your area or niche of focus.

Have a Flexible Schedule

if you are going to be known for quality articles, posts and information you will spend a good dose of your time developing article ideas, researching than the actual writing itself. A flexible schedule will enable you develop article ideas (at any point I have not less than 20 article ideas saved as drafts on my blog’s wordpress panel), have time for research, devote time to the actual writing and promotion of your work.

Get a Job or Go Solo?

So many think a writer can only do freelance or full self-employed writing work. Nothing can be further from the truth. As Nigeria’s online business space blossoms and enlarges companies doing business online discover the need for more useful and accurate content as a new way to attract more prospective users and customers. This is where niche writers come in.

While you may choose to do self employed, independent writing work there are also growing opportunities for full time or part time writers to join the online marketing team of various online tech companies. For instance if you a fashion writer and blogger with passion and track record of incisive work on fashion and related writing you could actually join an online retailer such as Jumia and help push useful, relevant fashion related content to the millions of prospective customers being targeted by the retailer. A writer passionate about travel, hospitality etc can write for hotel booking companies and travel agencies etc.

More of these writing opportunities are opening up and if you position yourself as a writing expert and passionate in a particular niche it could be a good strategy to target landing a writing job at any of the companies that operate in your niche or related niches.

And one good thing about the sort of writing career is that you will most likely have a more flexible work schedule (almost akin to being self employed) and in some situations (depending on the company) may not even be required to commute to the company’s work location.

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